We’ve had some discussions here before about MMOGs, especially the fantasy variety: the grind, the emphasis on “kill, loot, level”, the obsessive playing, the eternal hunt for “good drops”. In China, they do things differently.

While breezing through gamesetwatch earlier, I came across a post that pointed to an article about a Chinese MMOG called ZT Online. It’s free to play, but paying nothing gets you nowhere. Literally.

There is no grind. Players buy (with real money, of course) the highest level they can afford. They have to buy all their equipment, as well. There are no drops from defeated enemies, or as rewards for completing quests.

Gambling is also very popular. Players buy a chest and a key for a very small sum. Opening the chest starts a “wheel of fortune” as items spin around and then one “comes up”. Often, it isn’t what the player wants, so another chest is purchased. And another, and so on.

Where Western games encourage cooperative play through groups, ZT prefers to set players against each other with incessant warfare. Everyone belongs to a country, guild, and faction, and they are all at loggerheads with each other. Personal power and prestige are more important than anything else.

Personal revenge is another big feature. If you’re killed by another player, that person’s name goes on your “revenge” list, so you know who to go after later.

According to the article, ZT usually has a million players online at any time. I didn’t think China had that many people who have nothing better to do with their money than spend it this way. And they are spending it in great amounts. If they want to play, they don’t have any choice.

You know, I’m finding this situation scarier all the time. It’s bad enough when players pay real money to others for “neat stuff”, or to furnish make-believe rooms with virtual furniture they don’t own.

This ZT seems to be the ultimate, where everything is for sale, and the pressure to compete is enormous. And the more players spend, the more important the game becomes, yet there isn’t really anything material to show for it all.

The article is long, but well worth reading. Take a look, and see what you think. ZT Online isn’t a game I’d ever want to play myself.

Read the entire article, thanks Scorpia. I wish other gamers/companies would read it too.

That game model exists in other Western games too. There.com has a similar model but you CAN do things without paying RL $. If you want that house, different clothing, plot of land and a house….THEN you pay RL $ to obtain. I beta tested There and still have a free Founders account. The typical player will arrive, spend $1,000s to get what they want…then leave 3-6 months later. But in There, you can earn RL $ by designing items for sale and converting your in-game currency for RL $. Some players were earning $5,000 USD this way. That is when I left and no longer play There.

ZT Online has merely grasped the tenents that fit China’s cultural past. Glory, power, revenge…read Asian history sometime. And if you read the MMO forums, you will see that 70% of the western gamers are also trying to live in that model. But they are using RMT companies to make their wishes realities.

Micro-transactions are coming to a MMO near you soon…many game companies/publishers are embracing this model to replace the RMT companies plaguing the games. Cutting out the middleman.

I didn’t like the tone of the article. The “den of decadence” tone was rather high-n-mighty for me. All PvP is about killing another person in-game…so portraying it as evil in the article gave the impression of someone wanting to paint a rather bad picture with a broad brush stroke.

Good article and eye-opener for many! I need to share this with many other people!

It’s a cultural thing, I think. The conspicuous consumption, no-skill variety of gambling is preferred in Europe and Asia, while we fools in America prefer games of skill providing the illusion that we can win. We think we’re going to get rich quick at the job called gambling, while they understand gambling as a mere demonstration of one’s wealth and means of dissipation.

The real question is: Has anyone figured out how to prostitute in ZT yet? If real money and gambling are already there then I bet the answer is “yes, duh”.

This is a bad trend. Just like Second LIfe is a bad idea. I remember beta testing Second Life and telling one of the design team that while a neat concept the “no rules” mentality was going to get them all the bad things like prostitution, gambling, etc. He adamantly denied it would and said that the freedom would allow people to rise above those things. Guess, what, Second Life has more “deviant” behaviour than any game I’ve ever played with some of it far more stomach churning than I ever expected or predicted to him. I put deviant in quotes because I mean it as, different from puritan America’s religiously oppressive idea of normal.

I bet ZT has some of that. When real money is involved people automatically feel intitled to do what they want no matter what.